Warwickshire Wubbleyous

Another lovely day, and compulsory cycling! The intended trip to South Warwickshire having been foiled by Virgin Trains' lack of cycle-friendliness, I made the best of it and headed off nearer to home. This is such a glorious time of year that almost anywhere looks good. North-East Warwickshire lacks the black-and-white cottages of the South of the county, but it is fine cycling country, and has many good, and some very good, churches. It also has many villages beginning with 'W'.

St. Mary Magdalen, Wyken, is an unusual dedication, and - appropriately - next to it is the Church of the Risen Christ. Wyken was a remote village till Coventry expanded in the second half of the 20th century, so this simple medieval church remained largely unaltered. When the estates grew around it, the new church was built next door.

St. Andrew's, Shilton. One of many Warwickshire churches with elaborate and poetic gravestones.

St. Botolph, Burton Hastings, where I had lunch!

St. John Baptist, Wolvey. Wolvey is at the edge of a rather open, unpopulated area with evocative placenames such as Wolvey Wolds, Cloudesley Bush and Hobley Furze. It is bisected by the Fosse Way and Watling Street, and there are frequent deserted villages: the area was cleared for sheep grazing in the 15th century. The church has several old Norman heads incorporated into the stonework.

The priory church of St. Edith, Monks Kirby, is one of the largest in the county, and was the only one open this day. There was a Benedictine priory here in 1077, but at the same time as the Carthusians took over in 1399, the dedication of the church changed too - hostilities with France meant that St. Denis became unacceptable. The church has an elegant pillared nave, and some fine carved tombs. It was lovely and cool on what had become a hot day.

All Saints' Withybrook, though rather dumpy, has a pretty streamside setting and some interesting triple-headed gravestones. It sounds as if it is interesting inside too; a pity it was closed.

Fittingly, it was another Mary, St. Mary the Virgin, Walsgrave, which was the final church of the day. Another (largely) medieval church subsumed by Coventry, it is unfortunately located very close to the busy Walsgrave Road. It is evidently well-used and cared for though: there are modern red sandstone carvings on an ancient doorway, and a new church hall.

Revivification

The Easter hols always seem to catch me unawares. It's partly that the year doesn't feel like it's really got underway till after my birthday, with January, February and March seemingly long, cold, grim months. After the clocks spring forwards things suddenly get much better. So I don't usually get round to planning to visit anyone - which is just as well as there were no trains out of Coventry this weekend - engineering works. Why? How many passengers do they lose permanently by pushing them onto 'replacement buses'? How much do they pay the guys doing the works? As most other weekends are already affected I think they should give us a weekend off.

Anyway, trains were running on Friday, so I went to Wolverhampton. Here is a rather lovely semi-demolished building which I photographed with glee. (Then noticed that yet another bit had fallen off my bike, which took about 45 minutes to not sort out very well).


The main reason for going to Wolverhampton (which I find depressing - yes, Cov compares well to Wolv) was to visit the very un-derelict Wightwick Manor (pronounced Whittick) which is a lovely Victorian house with lots of Pre-Raphaelite drawings and paintings. En route I came across Bantock House, another Arts and Crafts house. I also took the opportunity to go for a spin along the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, a new canal to me.

Saturday, off to Birmingham on the long slow, exasperating bus, but some jolly photography in the Botanical Gardens. The photos below have a watery theme: the first the result of my lens getting misted up in the tropical house.


Sunday was day at home, doing some sorting out. Partly as I wanted to listen to Gardener's Question Time featuring moi (blimey - I don't have an East Midlands accent any more!) Partly as I'm having a bit of an outage - I'm expecting to move house again later on this summer and it was so awful last time I'm determined to have less stuff this time round. But what does one do with the stuff which can't even go to Oxfam? The tapes recorded off the radio in the 80's? The photos of university parties? I hate throwing stuff away, I guess I'll have to make sure it all goes to landfill rather than incinerator, then it'll at least have a small chance of being dug up by archaeologists of the future.

What of course has happened is that I'm havinga nostalgia-fest instead - currently listening to James 'Laid'. Wonderful stuff! Have made the belated discovery that tapes are much more accessible in a cardboard box than a plastic thing with little tape-sized drawers. So not getting rid of them all just yet. Just wish I could REALLY turn the volume up, but I have nice neighbours who like me. Also made hot cross buns. I felt a bit hypocritical putting the crosses on, but it didn't feel right to not have them! Anyway, the nice neighbours appreciated them.

So, today, a bike ride up Coventry Canal though Bedworth and Nuneaton, which is far better than it sounds, largely because one doesn't get to see either place at all. Loads of cheerful people in canal boats, lots of blackthorn at its foamy best, lots of thorns on the towpath. After I'd fixed the puncture I stuck to the roads, wending my way round North Warwickshire. It's a mixture of somewhat grott ex-mining villages, pleasant rolling countryside, and red sandstone churches. Astley, Ansley and Arley are all lovely though dissolving like brown sugar, and sadly not one was open - but who can blame them.

Back home to toasted hot cross bun after cycling nearly 40 miles. A great weekend. I feel revived and renewed. Wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow!